Tamil actor Dhanush, who is awaiting the release of his first Hindi film “Raanjhanaa“, says even though superstar Rajnikanth has a lot of influence on him, he doesn’t like being compared with his father-in-law because he considers him a “legend”.

“I grew up watching his films and therefore there might be his influence on me, but I don’t like to be compared with him,” Dhanush told IANS in an interview.

“He is a legend and I’m only 26 films old. How can you possibly compare me with him,” he asked.

Director Anand L. Rai has transformed the southern star into a typical desi guy from Benaras for “Raanjhanaa“. But for Dhanush, character was no different from playing a lover boy in a Tamil film.

 

It was just another film for me. After hearing the script, I realised that the character was very similar to the lover boy I have played in several Tamil films. I knew I had to play a lover boy again, but in a different place and language and, therefore, I had nothing to worry about,” said the actor, who has teamed up with Sonam Kapoor in the love story.

“Anand wouldn’t have offered me the project in the first place had he not believed in me. The faith factor touched me and I was convinced that I had to do the project,” he added.

For Dhanush, working in Bollywood is almost similar to doing movies in the Tamil film industry. The only difference he can point out is the exhausting promos.

“In the south, we usually give a bunch of interviews and we are done, but in Bollywood, promotions are really exhausting. We travelled to nearly 15 cities to promote ‘Raanjhanaa’, but down south, seldom do we go to other cities to promote our films. This is the only difference I find between the two industries,” he said.

He however admitted language was his biggest barrier while doing “Raanjhanaa”.

I almost gave up dubbing because learning Hindi was a Herculean task. But Anand and Sonam never gave up on me and I’m thankful to them. I still haven’t mastered the language and I think I will take more time, the actor added.